Definition
An archaic spelling variant of TITHING. As used in historical English law, the term refers to three related but distinct concepts: (1) a company or group of ten men bound together for purposes of mutual surety and local order under the frankpledge system; (2) a territorial subdivision, being the tenth part of a hundred (a unit of local government); and (3) a tenth part generally, which connects the term to its ecclesiastical and fiscal usage in the context of tithes.
The core legal meaning centers on the frankpledge institution: adult male freemen were enrolled in groups of ten (a tything), with each member standing surety for the others' conduct and appearance before courts. If one member committed an offense and fled, the remaining members could be fined. The headman of the tything was the tythingman (also spelled tithing-man).
Common Confusion
TYTHING and TITHING are not different terms — they are the same word in different spellings. The confusion arises when researchers assume the variant spelling signals a different concept or a different historical period of use. It does not. Both spellings appear across overlapping time periods in legal and ecclesiastical records.
Separately, the frankpledge meaning (group of ten men, mutual surety) and the ecclesiastical/fiscal meaning (a tenth part, a tithe) share the same word and the same root but refer to entirely different legal institutions. Context — manorial and criminal law versus church and revenue law — is the only reliable guide to which sense applies.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter TYTHING almost exclusively as a spelling variant in pre-modern legal texts, manuscripts, and early printed sources. It appears interchangeably with TITHING, TITHINGE, TYTHING, and DECENNA in medieval and early modern English records. The variant spelling is common enough that a search limited to one spelling will miss relevant material in corpus research.
The term spans at least two distinct institutional contexts — the frankpledge system (criminal and social order) and the ecclesiastical/fiscal tithe system — and historical sources do not always clearly distinguish which sense is operative. When TYTHING appears in manorial court records or presentments, the frankpledge meaning is almost certainly intended. When it appears in ecclesiastical records or revenue contexts, the tenth-part meaning governs.
The frankpledge institution had largely decayed in practice by the Tudor period, though formal vestiges persisted in manorial records considerably later. Researchers working in post-medieval sources should treat references to tythings with caution: the term may reflect archaic formula rather than a living institution.
Because all three source dictionaries here redirect to TITHING rather than providing a full independent entry, the substantive research intelligence for this term lives under that headword. Do not treat the TYTHING entries as self-contained; they are pointer entries only.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries — Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Rapalje & Lawrence — treat TYTHING identically: a brief three-part gloss ("a company of ten; a district; a tenth part") followed by a cross-reference to TITHING. The entries are substantively the same across all three, suggesting a common source and no meaningful editorial evolution between editions on this variant spelling.
The Rapalje & Lawrence entry adds a parenthetical reference to civil and criminal matters drawn up in B.C. 450, which appears to be a garbled typographical artifact from an adjacent entry (likely a reference to the Twelve Tables) rather than substantive content about TYTHING itself. Researchers should not rely on that parenthetical as meaningful annotation.
Webster's 1913 likewise redirects to TITHING without elaboration. Wiktionary confirms the term is an obsolete spelling only. No source provides an independent definition of substance; all treat TYTHING as a mere orthographic variant.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Frankpledge; Hundred (territorial division); Tithing